In a non-conference home game, Libertyville faced off against Batavia in a 3OT thriller that resulted in a 34-31 victory for Batavia.
The first half was a defensive struggle with the Wildcats trailing 7-3, as the Bulldogs scored the only touchdown on their first drive of the game, coming from the hands of Riley Cooper. Wildcats kicker Matthew Rudolphi added a field goal.
Libertyville (1-1) began the third quarter driving down the field against Batavia, with Jack Russell throwing a 56-yard bomb to Brendan Bazar as the big play. Bazar finished the drive off with a 3-yard rush to give the Wildcats a 10-7 lead.
RB Jason Tse ended the third quarter with a 5-yard rushing TD that gave the Wildcats a 17-7 edge over the Bulldogs going into the fourth quarter. Tse ended the game with 136 rushing yards.
Cooper connected with WR Thomas Stuttle for a 5-yard TD, capping off a 76-yard drive, to shorten Libertyville’s lead to 17-14.
In the final seconds of the fourth quarter, Batavia (2-0) rushed to the line to get off another play as they were down 17-14 with no timeouts left. Snapping the ball, Batavia’s Cooper threw an interception into the hands of a Wildcat, Ben Arnold, giving Libertyville what seemed like the win. But the referees had thrown a flag for a false start on the Bulldogs, which allowed for 1.5 seconds to be put back up on the clock and Batavia to kick a game-tying field goal.
“The penalty actually bailed them out,” Libertyville Defensive Coordinator Mr. Tim Budge said of the Bulldogs being penalized.
“We were all thinking that we had that (win) at the end (of the game),” Ruskell said, remembering the final plays of the fourth quarter. Ruskell finished the game with 10 completions on 16 attempts and 193 total passing yards.
In overtime, Libertyville got rushing touchdowns from Ruskell and Tse. Batavia had two touchdown receptions from Dana Anderson and Stuttle.
Rudolphi had a field goal blocked in the third overtime which lead to Batavia ending the game the next drive with a field goal themselves.
“The guys battled the whole night; hats of to Batavia, they are a great ball club,” Budge said, “We showed that we could battle with some of the best teams in the state. I think we will be ready to roll next week against Warren”.
Libertyville is up against Warren at home next Friday at 7:30 p.m.
